August 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-Hampshire Gazette (August 31, 1776).

“THE following new ACTS and LAWS, past at the last Session of the General-Court of this State.”

On August 10, 1776, the Freeman’s Journal, printed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, carried an advertisement that announced that the “Acts and Laws OF this State, passed since the new Form of Government took Place, are now in the Press, and in a few Weeks will be published at the Printing Office in Exeter.”  That town served as New Hampshire’s capital during the Revolutionary War.  Provincial congresses met there before the war during its first year.  The assembly continued meeting there after the Continental Congress declared independence.  Three weeks after the first advertisement, a new advertisement appeared in the Freeman’s Journal.  It informed readers that the “following new ACTS and LAWS, past at the last Session of the General-Court of this State” was “Just Published at the Printing Office in EXETER.”  Robert L. Fowle, the printer in Exeter, offered for sale “A few Copies exclusive of what the Assembly take off.”

Most of the advertisement consisted of a list of the various acts, including “An Act for establishing Courts of Law for the Administration of Justice within this Colony,” “An Act to establish an equitable Method of making Rates and Taxes, and determining who shall be legal Voters in town and Parish Affairs,” “An Act to prevent the Forgeing & altering Bills of pubic Credit, and for preventing the Depreciation thereof; and for making the Bills of Credit of the United Colonies, and the Bills of this Colony a Tender in all payments.”  Even though Fowle stated that the acts had been passed by the “General-Court of this State,” many of them referred to New Hampshire as a colony.  The provincial congress adopted a new constitution in January 1776, removing the colony from British authority, yet the colonies had not yet declared independence.  Those last colonial laws soon became the first laws of the new state.

When Fowle listed the acts in a newspaper advertisement in hopes of selling surplus copies that the assembly did not “take off,” he also reported the news.  Readers did not have to purchase the acts to learn what kind of work the assembly had undertaken in Exeter, though the list might have prompted some to learn more about those acts that interested or affected them.  The advertisement supplemented the coverage of state government that appeared in newspapers.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 31, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Freeman’s Journal (August 31, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (August 31, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (August 31, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Ledger (August 31, 1776).

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Providence Gazette (August 31, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 31, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 31, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 31, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (August 31, 1776).

August 30

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

“THE Manufacturing Society in Williamsburg are in want of a person to superintend the works.”

As the imperial crisis intensified and then became a war for independence, many Americans advocated for producing and consuming “domestic manufactures,” goods made locally rather than imported from Great Britain.  Some entrepreneurs ran newspaper advertisements that promoted “domestic manufactures” that they made or sold, while others worked together in pooling their resources and establishing “manufactories,” such as the “AMERICAN MANUFACTORY, of LINEN, WOOLLEN, &c.” in Philadelphia, that employed local workers and produced goods for local consumers.

In Williamsburg, a “Manufacturing Society” pursued a similar purpose.  In late August 1776, the managers ran advertisements in both newspapers printed there, Alexander Purdie’s Virginia Gazette and John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette.  They announced that they “are in want of a person to superintend the works, purchase materials, &c. and to keep the necessary accounts,” promising “good wages” to a candidate “qualified to undertake that business,” provided that he came “well recommended.”  The Manufacturing Society offered other opportunities for employment.  “As the making of SAIL CLOTH is one of their objects,” the managers explained, “the Society will give good encouragement to spinners and weavers acquainted with that branch.”  In other words, they sought those with experience making that item.  In addition, the Manufacturing Society planned “taking a number of boys and girls as apprentices to SPINNING [and] WEAVING” once “the works are erected.”  Before consumers could demonstrate their political principles by purchasing domestic manufactures, local workers had to produce them.  The Manufacturing Society created jobs for those workers and provided training for the apprentices who would labor alongside them.  This endeavor allowed women, boys, and girls to contribute to the American cause.  Although they did not vote, hold office, or serve in the military, their work for the Manufacturing Society had political implications.  As both producers and consumers, they participated in politics in the marketplace.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 30, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (August 30, 1776).

August 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Journal (August 29, 1776).

“American Independence, THE INTEREST and GLORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.”

After the Continental Congress voted to declare independence, American printers and booksellers continued advertising and selling books and pamphlets that argued in favor of that course of action.  After all, disseminating the Declaration of Independence with its combination of political philosophy and grievances against George III served, in part, as a public relations tool that justified breaking away from Great Britain.  An array of books and pamphlets also made the case, convincing readers and helping them articulate their own views on the matter.

In the August 29, 1776, edition of the New-York Journal, for instance, William Green, a “Bookseller in Maiden Lane,” advertised American Independence, The Interest and Glory of Great Britain, “Just Re-printed from the London Copy.”  He most likely stocked an American edition printed by Robert Bell in Philadelphia.  John Cartwright’s work took the form of “a series of Letters to the Legislature,” demonstrating that a robust debate took place on the other side of the Atlantic and that Patriots had supporters in London.  Green did not need to generate copy to give an overview of the volume.  Instead, he used the book’s lengthy subtitle to inform readers that it included “Arguments which prove that not only in taxation but in trade, manufactures and government, the Colonies are entitled to an intire independency on the British Legislature; and that it can only be by a formal declaration of these rights, and forming thereupon a friendly league with that that the true and lasting welfare of both countries can be promoted.”  Cartwright did not call for a complete separation but rather a transatlantic alliance between two nations of equal stature, an alliance that would produce more benefits than the imperial system.

In addition to American Independence, Green stocked “All the new Pamphlets,” though he did not indicate whether that included any that advanced Loyalist perspectives.  In previous advertisements, he hawked Common Sense and political cartoons that supported the American cause.  He also sold “Sim’s Military Guide for officers, 2 vols. and the Political Disquisitions, 3 vols.”  No doubt he had many other books on hand, but Green highlighted those related to current events – political debates and the war – when he took to the public prints to entice customers to visit his shop.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 29, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Maryland Gazette (August 29, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (August 29, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 29, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 29, 1776).

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New-York Journal (August 29, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 29, 1776).

August 28

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Massachusetts Spy (August 28, 1776).

“The News-Papers will be ready for delivery at TWELVE o’Clock on the usual, day, and not before.”

Residents of Worcester really wanted to read the latest news!  They were so eager to get their hands on the latest issue of the Massachusetts Spy, a weekly newspaper published on Wednesdays, that they caused problems in the printing office.  The disruptions were significant enough that on August 28, 1776, William Stearns and Daniel Bigelow, the printers, found it necessary to insert an advertisement with instructions about when subscribers and others who were curious for “freshintelligence” about the Revolutionary War and other current events should expect to pick up their newspapers.  The printers made their notice the first item in the first column on the first page to increase the chances that the offenders saw it and took note.

“OUR kind Customers and others,” Stearns and Bigelow implored, “are desired to take notice that for the future the News-Papers will be ready for delivery at TWELVE o’Clock on the usual, day, and not before.”  In other words, the printers did not want subscribers and others dropping by the printing office to ask for copies of the latest edition before noon on Wednesdays.  They needed time to produce each new issue, but such inquiries merely distracted them.  Stearns and Bigelow explained that the “reason of this notice is, that we may have MORE time to collect and adjust [or select and edit] the fresh intelligence contained in the Southern mail,” which included both correspondence and newspapers from other towns.  Like other printers, Stearns and Bigelow reprinted extensively from newspapers they received via their exchange networks.  Furthermore, Stearns and Bigelow explained, if local readers waited until noon to pick up their newspapers, then that meant “that the Carriers may be served without DELAY.”  After all, the Massachusetts Spy had many subscribers outside of Worcester.  They also wanted to know the latest news as soon as post riders could deliver their newspapers.

Two weeks earlier, an advertisement for the newspaper’s “Post Rider to Fitchburg,” a town north of Worcester, emphasized that the Massachusetts Spy carried the “freshest and most important intelligence from the Grand Continental Army at New-York,” news that Stearns and Bigelow “published the next morning after the arrival of the Southern Mail, which contains ALL the LATEST advices from the grand seat of military operation.”  Demand for the news apparently matched the interest that the printers sought to incite.  Readers knew that “fresh intelligence” arrived at the printing office on Tuesdays for inclusion in a new issue of the newspaper on Wednesdays and they impatiently tried to get more information about current events before the printers had sufficient time to publish it.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 28, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Maryland Journal (August 28, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (August 28, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (August 28, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Journal (August 28, 1776).

August 27

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 27, 1776).

“EXTRACTS … relative to the … fitting out PRIVATEERS; together with the Rules and Regulations of the NAVY.”

During the imperial crisis and the Revolutionary War, printers regularly published news from the Continental Congress and local assemblies in their newspapers.  Sometimes they compiled the proceedings into books that they marketed and sold to consumers who wanted convenient access to that sort of overview of current events.  Printers in many towns, for instance, published local editions of “EXTRACTS FROM THE VOTES AND PROCEEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS” in the fall of 1774.

Nearly two years later, John Dunlap, the printer of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, saw an opportunity to publish a collation of rules and regulations about naval regulations for both privateers and the Continental Navy.  In an advertisement that appeared at the top of the final column on the first page of the August 27, 1776, edition of his newspaper, Dunlap informed the public that he “Just published … EXTRACTS, From the JOURNALS of CONGRESS, RELATIVE TO THE Captures and Condemnation of PRIZES, and the fitting out PRIVATEERS; together with the Rules and Regulations of the NAVY and Instructions to the Commanders of private SHIPS of WAR.”  As was common in many advertisements for books and pamphlets, the lengthy title doubled as advertising copy.  Dunlap did not generate original appeals to market the volume because the title already contained so much information.

The printer apparently believed that a market for this item existed in the largest city in the new nation.  Philadelphia was, after all, a busy port and many owners of vessels who pursued maritime commerce during times of peace contemplated how they could aid the war effort while simultaneously getting their share of prize money when they outfitted their ships for privateering.  Dunlap made this handy manual available alongside an array of military manuals published in Philadelphia and other cities.  Rather than hundreds of pages, like some of volumes containing the proceedings of the Continental Congress, this octavo pamphlet consisted of only forty-eight pages.  That made it a convenient size for officers on both privateers and naval vessels to stow among their possessions when they went to sea and then consult as necessary.  Dunlap printed this practical guide as a service, yet he also generated revenue from its sale.

Slavery Advertisements Published August 27, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (August 27, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Maryland Gazette (August 27, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 27, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (August 27, 1776).